The U.S. government has agreed to pay $400,000 to an American citizen and Army veteran from Washington state who was locked up for seven months while immigration officials wrongly tried to deport him.

The native of Belize explained repeatedly that he had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1998 while serving in the Army, but neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials nor an immigration judge believed him. He was finally released after the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and Seattle attorneys took up his case on appeal.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the agency now vets the citizenship claims of detainees much more closely, and if such claims appear credible, detainees are released.

What if the claims do not appear credible, but are?! The burden is on the government to prove that someone is doing something wrong. If they cannot prove it, the individual should be set free to go about his business. This is why individual rights are so important and why it's the proper, moral function of governments to protect them.

"Like other immigration detainees faced with deportation, Mr. Castillo was not entitled to a court-appointed attorney, and he could not afford to hire a private attorney," the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project said in a written statement.

No human being should ever be detained and denied the right to self-defense. This is so disgusting and I'm horrified to learn that this is the case in the US.

Castillo's case was complicated by the fact that his immigration files listed two names and misspelled versions of his first and last name. He also didn't have immediately family in the area to call for help.

Gee, there's a shocker. Government gets it wrong again. Some government union worker likely screwed up the forms and didn't care to make the corrections.

When will people wake up and realize that the US government is violating individual rights and it's within our power to do something about it? It doesn't matter if you're a citizen or not, rights are rights and all humans have them. They should be respected and protected if we are to live in a peaceful, productive society.